By: Erin Smith
The Bladen County Board of Elections met on Tuesday for the vote canvassing and voted to redact one ballot.
Board of Elections Director Cynthia Shaw told the board that one voter submitted a mail absentee ballot but he also voted at the One Stop site. Shaw said the system catches situations like this when entering voting history.
She said that when the the staff enters voting history if someone has already cast a ballot elsewhere, it will already be tagged when they go to update it. Shaw said to the board that what will happen is that the voter’s mail absentee ballot will be redacted.
There was also one provisional ballot cast that had to be counted as a partial count. Apparently, the voter told poll workers, he was a registered Democrat and had changed his registration. He was allowed to cast a Republican ballot but Board of Elections staff can find no record of a change of registration for the voter.
“What the law says, according to a memo I got this morning, we have to open the provisional ballot and transcribe the part that counts and feed it into the provisional ballot machine,” said Shaw.
It was decided to have the board staff transcribe the portion of the ballot that was allowed to count. Shaw suggested the board note on the transcribed ballot they approved it.
Shaw said on Monday, the Board of Elections reviewed and approved 18 mail absentee ballots. She told the board that due to the situation with the redacted vote, that number will now be 17 mail absentee ballots. Some mail absentee ballots were returned to the Board of Elections office on Monday but they were received too late. The NC General Statute statute says the ballots must be postmarked by 5 p.m. on Election Day and returned to the Board of Elections office no later than 5 p.m. the Friday immediately following the election.
Following the vote canvass for the June 7 primary in Bladen County, a total of 1,866 ballots were cast. Of those, 281 ballots were cast during One Stop voting and 374 mail absentee ballots were submitted and one provisional ballot. There were 768 Republican ballots cast and 1,098 nonpartisan ballots cast.
In the race for 9th Congressional District, the totals after the vote canvass are as follows:
Mark Harris 196
Todd Johnson 515
Robert Pittenger 52
Under Votes 5
There is a potential for a recount in the 9th Congressional district. Shaw said the board will have to wait to learn about when or if the recount will take place until the State Board of Elections has completed their vote canvassing process.
In the race for the NC Associate Justice of Supreme Court race, the totals after the vote canvass are as follows:
Michael Morgan 934
Daniel Roberson 156
Robert Edmonds 581
Sabra Faires 71
Under Votes 123
The June 7 Primary is estimated to have cost North Carolina tax payers about $9 million. Shaw said locally the election cost about $40,000. She itemized that there are expenses for ballots, poll workers, for supplies and so on.
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